High in a treetop he stopped, and, poking his head cautiously from behind a branch, looked down with an air of trepidation.

Stephen Crane -- The Red Badge of Courage

Frank looked at Tyson with trepidation.

Rick Riordan -- The Son of Neptune

She could see the trepidation even on Basta’s face, although he was doing his best to hide it by assuming a particularly bored expression.

Cornelia Funke -- Inkheart

For some days, I even kept close at home, and looked out at the kitchen door with the greatest caution and trepidation before going on an errand, lest the officers of the County Jail should pounce upon me.

Charles Dickens -- Great Expectations

LINDA [hearing WILLY outside the bedroom, calls with some trepidation]:

Arthur Miller -- Death of a Salesman

...when drawing nigh the coasts of foreign lands, if by night he hear the roar of breakers, starts to vigilance, and feels just enough of trepidation to sharpen all his faculties;

Herman Melville -- Moby Dick

a world whose inhabitants walked in trepidation, in fear of opening up.

David Guterson -- Snow Falling on Cedars

When he reached the turning into the street, in an agony of trepidation he looked down it… at the house… and at once averted his eyes.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Crime and Punishment

Harry could hear the tiniest note of trepidation in that callous voice, and knew that Greyback was wondering whether he had just indeed just attacked and bound the son of a Ministry Official.

J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

"What has happened?" we ask with trepidation.

Kamala Markandaya -- Nectar in a Sieve

Trepidation rose thickly in her throat, but she nodded.

Stephen King -- Carrie

I could never go out to breathe God’s free air without trepidation at my heart.

Harriet Jacobs -- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

I could see surprise, shock, incredible excitement on all of their faces, but also hints of fear and trepidation.

James Patterson -- The Angel Experiment

I was by this time in a state of such excessive trepidation and wandering of mind, as to be quite unable to fix my attention on anything.

Charles Dickens -- David Copperfield

It must be a beast, then, and we might as well have saved our trepidation.

Mark Twain -- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

eagerness or trepidation

Edgar Allan Poe -- The Murders in the Rue Morgue

However, I think you’ll agree that I now leave you fairly often with little trepidation.

Sarah Dessen -- Lock and Key

When her inside dream was shaken, her body quivered with trepidation.

D.H. Lawrence -- Sons and Lovers

She knew Anna Arkadyevna, but only very slightly, and she came now to her sister’s with some trepidation, at the prospect of meeting this fashionable Petersburg lady, whom everyone spoke so highly of.

Leo Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina

The next phase of the supersession of Henchard in Lucetta’s heart was an experiment in calling on her performed by Farfrae with some apparent trepidation.

Thomas Hardy -- The Mayor of Casterbridge

...the youngest of several daughters of a poor country parson, had ... come up to London, in trepidation, to answer in person an advertisement that...

Henry James -- The Turn of the Screw

...when I entered my address in her register as ’Darlington Hall’, I could see her look at me with some trepidation, assuming no doubt that I was some gentleman used to such places as the Ritz or the Dorchester and that I would storm out of her guest house on being shown my room.

Kazuo Ishiguro -- The Remains of the Day

"I’m in a hurry at the moment," I tell him, "but I’d like to come back and hear you play again."

"Oh, all right," he says, smiling appreciatively but with trepidation.